Spectator announcement

[ellroy]

Still doesn’t get round the maximum event size rule of the French Govt remaining at 5,000....

That’s the only piece of information that truly matters.

[Truckosaurus]

One would hope the ACO have been given the nod by the government that they plan to relax the crowd number rule by Sept - even if on an event-by-event basis.

There's always the chance of a surge in cases/deaths causing travel bans and lockdowns but we won't be able to count that out until the week of the race IMHO.

[davidd]

I've seen a couple of articles stating that they will review the 5,000 limit at some point in July..

https://www.msn.com/en-in/sports/news/covid-19-fra...

10,000 in a stadium (which is what the article suggests is the next step) would be like a pea in barrel at le mans.

[lowdrag]

wsn03 said:

My first was 2008.
My second was the year of the Nissan stealth thing - 2011?

You mean this lovely thing? I adored it. 20 laps without filling up or changing tyres I seem to recall. It was 2012

[LawrieC]

Didn't it crash well

Next update in a fortnight. Rumours of "bubbles" of 4999, an all seat event, and only about 30000.

[LM240]

Email response received from ACO about booking two entry tickets (already had grandstand & parking).

Phoned, paid, e-tickets received.

There is a big point made that these new tickets are non refundable though. I don’t know about previously bought tickets.

In the event of cancellation I’d be asking they are carried over to 2021 anyway. If event runs, but without spectators, who knows what the refund policy would be.

I’m just happy that if I can go in September everything is in place.

Next worry will be ferry running to any sort of schedule in sept (jersey-st malo). I would if necessary fly to England onto France (wherever best for logistics) and hire a car from there as worst case scenario.

Also might be going solo as my dad may not want to risk the trip with a COVID risk still present.

Edited by LM240 on Wednesday 1st July 15:20

Edited by LM240 on Wednesday 1st July 15:21

[Output Flange]

Likewise, email received from the ACO for GE tickets. Paid by bank transfer, so fingers crossed now it all goes ahead as planned!

[wsn03]

lowdrag said:

wsn03 said:

My first was 2008.
My second was the year of the Nissan stealth thing - 2011?

You mean this lovely thing? I adored it. 20 laps without filling up or changing tyres I seem to recall. It was 2012

That's the one - thanks for confirming, 2012. Saw it coming past several times in the evening at very low speed at the Hunaudiaires because of safety cars being out - it was very interesting close up at low speed. That was my 2nd trip and not a bad event, shame the Toyota's exited so early (if my memory serves me correctly it was their first year)

Edited by wsn03 on Wednesday 1st July 20:46

[slartibartfast]

wsn03 said:

lowdrag said:

wsn03 said:

My first was 2008.
My second was the year of the Nissan stealth thing - 2011?

You mean this lovely thing? I adored it. 20 laps without filling up or changing tyres I seem to recall. It was 2012

That's the one - thanks for confirming, 2012. Saw it coming past several times in the evening at very low speed at the Hunaudiaires because of safety cars being out - it was very interesting close up at low speed. That was my 2nd trip and not a bad event, shame the Toyota's exited so early (if my memory serves me correctly it was their first year)

Edited by wsn03 on Wednesday 1st July 20:46

Didn't it get punted off by another car?
or am I thinking about some other weird thing?

[wsn03]

slartibartfast said:

wsn03 said:

lowdrag said:

wsn03 said:

My first was 2008.
My second was the year of the Nissan stealth thing - 2011?

You mean this lovely thing? I adored it. 20 laps without filling up or changing tyres I seem to recall. It was 2012

That's the one - thanks for confirming, 2012. Saw it coming past several times in the evening at very low speed at the Hunaudiaires because of safety cars being out - it was very interesting close up at low speed. That was my 2nd trip and not a bad event, shame the Toyota's exited so early (if my memory serves me correctly it was their first year)

Edited by wsn03 on Wednesday 1st July 20:46

Didn't it get punted off by another car?
or am I thinking about some other weird thing?

Wikipedia:

"The car was retired after 75 laps following an accident in which the DeltaWing ran into a concrete barrier at the Porsche Curves after a collision with Kazuki Nakajima's Toyota TS030 Hybrid.[19] The DeltaWing recorded a best race lap time of 3:45.737, rivaling some of the LMP2 teams.[20] The car did 11 laps on one tank, that is 150 km on a 40-litre fuel tank (26.67 L/100 km or 8.82 mi/gal).[21]"

[Red Firecracker]

For "after a collision with Kazuki Nakajima's Toyota TS030", read "After Kazuki Nakajima used his Toyota TS030 to violently hip check the Deltawing into the wall".

There's a heartbreaking video of Satoshi Motoyama trying to get the wreck moving again on YouTube.

And as for how they count the visitor numbers......... In the words of Star Trek, "It's worse than that......."

Edited by Red Firecracker on Thursday 2nd July 07:33

[BladeRace]

Super. We hope that the same regulation will be made for 24 Hours Nürburgring.

[lowdrag]

And this was 2014:-



The same year that the Audi came by road saving transporter costs.

[//j17]

Red Firecracker said:

For "after a collision with Kazuki Nakajima's Toyota TS030", read "After Kazuki Nakajima used his Toyota TS030 to violently hip check the Deltawing into the wall".

If I remember correctly Nakajima was just being a complete and utter dick at the end of a SC period, trying to overtake the whole queue in one go and assuming that because his car was faster everyone would just stay in a stright line and give him right of way. Which was great till you have Motoyama being a gentleman, knowing his car was a garage 52 entry so not really "in the race" and so pulling off line to avoid disrupting any race battles - only to be rammed by Nakajima not bothering to check his mirrors.

[gt6]

It was a big shame really, OK the delta wing was not every bodies cup of tea but i loved the fact it looked different and was trying some thing new

[davidd]

gt6 said:

It was a big shame really, OK the delta wing was not every bodies cup of tea but i loved the fact it looked different and was trying some thing new

It was a shame, we were gutted when it went out.

[//j17]

It was much better than most Garage 52 entries! Or any entry from the JLOC.

Better than Nissan's horrid front engine entry from 2015(?), which never worked properly and just never looked like it was going to either.

Edited by //j17 on Thursday 2nd July 11:37

[Red Firecracker]

//j17 said:

If I remember correctly Nakajima was just being a complete and utter dick at the end of a SC period, trying to overtake the whole queue in one go and assuming that because his car was faster everyone would just stay in a stright line and give him right of way. Which was great till you have Motoyama being a gentleman, knowing his car was a garage 52 entry so not really "in the race" and so pulling off line to avoid disrupting any race battles - only to be rammed by Nakajima not bothering to check his mirrors.

Porsche Curves and Kazuki took a wide entry to try for the cutback on the exit of the left hander. Unfortunately the space he went for to create the cutback was occupied by the DeltaWing. It wasn't a massive hit, to be fair, but on that car it was terminal.

//j17 said:

It was much better than most Garage 52 entries! Or any entry from the JLOC.

Better than Nissan's horrid front engine entry from 2015(?), which never worked properly and just never looked like it was going to either.

Edited by //j17 on Thursday 2nd July 11:37

Unfair on the Nissan LMP1 (IMHO). The speed those cars were achieving with the non working hybrid system was mightily impressive. A great engineering exercise and a very interesting programme. They also provided something different in a sea of convention.

[Truckosaurus]

Red Firecracker said:

Unfair on the Nissan LMP1 (IMHO). The speed those cars were achieving with the non working hybrid system was mightily impressive. A great engineering exercise and a very interesting programme. They also provided something different in a sea of convention.

Indeed. That programme's biggest problem was that it was a bit too public so we all got to see its flaws and issues, let alone the vast amount of 'talking up' of its potential leading to unrealistic expectations.

A bit more private testing and a later race debut would have done it the world of good.

[//j17]

Red Firecracker said:

//j17 said:

If I remember correctly Nakajima was just being a complete and utter dick at the end of a SC period, trying to overtake the whole queue in one go and assuming that because his car was faster everyone would just stay in a stright line and give him right of way. Which was great till you have Motoyama being a gentleman, knowing his car was a garage 52 entry so not really "in the race" and so pulling off line to avoid disrupting any race battles - only to be rammed by Nakajima not bothering to check his mirrors.

Porsche Curves and Kazuki took a wide entry to try for the cutback on the exit of the left hander. Unfortunately the space he went for to create the cutback was occupied by the DeltaWing. It wasn't a massive hit, to be fair, but on that car it was terminal.

Humm, I'm not convinced there's a cutback to be had by taking a different line through the exit of "Esses du Karting" and into "Virage Corvette". Looks much more like Nakajima just trying to send a message to the car in front that either "I'm an LMP1, you're an LMP2, I'll be passing so stay there" or "We're both LMP1s but I'm faster than you and want you looking backwards rather than forwards".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJAiZVuC3YI - 30s in.

Red Firecracker said:

//j17 said:

It was much better than most Garage 52 entries! Or any entry from the JLOC.

Better than Nissan's horrid front engine entry from 2015(?), which never worked properly and just never looked like it was going to either.

Unfair on the Nissan LMP1 (IMHO). The speed those cars were achieving with the non working hybrid system was mightily impressive. A great engineering exercise and a very interesting programme. They also provided something different in a sea of convention.

Meh. I still think it's ugly